The City of Heroes Guest Author Program

[PatrickG]

Okay, I don't play CoH anymore but I HAVE noticed they're using the Mission Architect doodad and bringing onboard writers who will have missions created by City of... staffers based on stories they put together.

Idea being, I think, that it will draw in authors who haven't played the game or who aren't necessarily all that technical with the MA system and that they will give these things special promotion above and beyond standard player-created content.

So... My questions are:

- Where's Gail?

- Where's Misty?

- What about you, Tom? I noticed that they include webcomics guys like Scott Kurtz. Personally, I think you might be eligible for this program, particularly in its infancy, and the cross promotional aspect would be nice. If nothing else, you could add a professional video game writing credit to the resume.

- Likewise Jim Ritchey.

[TomStillwell]

I might have mentioned this here before but I've already been accepted into the guest author program and I'll be working on missions next year some time.

I met with a NCSOFT developer while at SDCC and he hooked me up.

They've mentioned having a good number of writers on board already and they'll start creating content in a few months.

[Hybrid2]

I tried the Guest author AE missions.

They where fun but noting special or that where'nt done before.

Tom. your gona be doing actual content and not just AE right?

[TomStillwell]

These will be regular game missions. Not AE missions.

[PatrickG]

These will be regular game missions. Not AE missions.

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Sally Sensational]

I believe Larry mentioned in another thread that Misty's been writing for CoH.

Sniff! Knowing that all these great people are writing for the game makes me wish I could play again!

[Larry Dixon]

Yep we're in. And the devs are super. I mean it... patient, nice, funny and everything you'd want to work with as a pro. Hasn't been a single regrettable moment.

[JamesRitcheyIII]

Okay, I don't play CoH anymore but I HAVE noticed they're using the Mission Architect doodad and bringing onboard writers who will have missions created by City of... staffers based on stories they put together.

Idea being, I think, that it will draw in authors who haven't played the game or who aren't necessarily all that technical with the MA system and that they will give these things special promotion above and beyond standard player-created content.

So... My questions are:

- Where's Gail?

- Where's Misty?

- What about you, Tom? I noticed that they include webcomics guys like Scott Kurtz. Personally, I think you might be eligible for this program, particularly in its infancy, and the cross promotional aspect would be nice. If nothing else, you could add a professional video game writing credit to the resume.

- Likewise Jim Ritchey.

Thanks. Never heard a thing about it, till now. I certainly qualify on the 'haven't played the game' end--haven't played an RPG or anything of it's ilk in 30 years.

Do they have a 'Bible' handy?

[PatrickG]

They have a lot of story resources at Cityofheroes.com...

Mark Waid, Howard Porter, Misty, Larry and Gail were all a part of our group as well as a young Tom Stillwell.

Any of the YABS posters who played would be great people to ask. sk716 was very knowledgeable. I'd be happy to field any questions as well.

The beauty is there's a basic overarching mythology about Statesman and Lord Recluse who were explorers in the first half of the 20th century. Statesman became the mortal incarnation of Zeus and became the patriotic first super-hero. There's stuff beyond that about alternate universes and time travel and a legendary guy named Hero-1 who WAS the martyred patron saint of super-heroes.

But within the larger mythos, it's a very basic super-hero universe where any concept you can think up might exist. Most of the guest author stuff invents new heroes and villains for its scripted content although Bill Willingham (Fables, JSA) did make use Azuria, a low level questgiver. The running joke for years is that in spite of running a vault that contains mystic artifacts, she's either incompetent or corrupt since the same stuff keeps getting stolen. (Many new players are always looking for groups to retrieve stuff she loses.) So Willingham worked her into his story as part of a gag about how she's always losing stuff.

Really, come up with a basic RPG storyarc that uses super-heroes. If you can come up with a novel mechanic (helps to play the game or consult with somebody who has) then cool. If you can make a vague allusion to the game's larger lore, cool. But a lot of these guest writers are telling fairly standard stories about missing artifacts and stolen inventions with a lot of the "personality" coming out in the scripted dialogue and the design/concepts of the villains and non-player heroes you encounter.

[Karen El]

One of the problems I've always had with MMOGs is that there's never much depth of choice. NPC Fred sends you off to retrieve the Doodad of Awesomeness so you go to the place, fight the monster, get the treasure. An extended series of quests might give you more story and more encounters, but once you are on the track you are pretty much following a script.

One of the things I'd like to see is where a quest gives you multiple options that change the story, depending on your actions. There might be a moral dilemma where different NPCs give you conflicting missions, it could even be as simple as taking a different route through a building would lead to different encounters - anything to make the experience feel a little more spontaneous, and maybe give a different ending to the story.

If I was a game writer, that's what I'd be doing, rather than simply dressing up the old "travel around the map, hit the monster, get the treasure" with a new coat of paint.